The Promejoramiento community is a six-month-old group in need of funding for its second loan. These women are all mothers from the remote highland village of San Jose Chacaya. They are mainly dedicated to raising livestock and planting/sowing agricultural products. Others dedicate their lives to making and selling food, and administrating fruit stands and a small grocery store.
These women are openly very happy with their hometown. The general feeling is that they like the sense of community in their town and its citizens' latent desire to grow and prosper. Silvia Feliciana P. P. pointed out how much they enjoyed dancing or watching people dance at the yearly fair, which brings the entire town together in the church’s central square. Events like the fair are the ones for which the credit proves most helpful, allowing them to stock up in order to maximize profits during these periods of condensed sales.
They unanimously made a point of mentioning how thankful they are of the possibility of receiving these “very helpful” loans that allow their microenterprises to “go very well,” as Maria R. A. expressed. She went on to say that they feel a sense of empowerment when receiving the funds, a kind of responsibility to do something bigger than ever before with it, and prove to their group and, most importantly, their family, that they can pay back the money. They unanimously agreed as well that it was relatively easy to pay back the money. In addition, they all enjoy meeting with their communal bank, which not only allows them to support each other mutually in repaying loans, but provides a few fun social hours every month.
“Without this money, it is impossible to overcome,” stated Natalia T.. She mentioned the barriers of the cycles of steady profits and expenses, but the drowning and constant increases in costs of living that keep their businesses at such a minimal size. Reliable microloans allow them to overcome these barriers.
Their ultimate investment goal is growth, which will lead to money, which will allow them and their children to live comfortable lives, despite today’s unprecedented costs of living. The fact that every one of these mothers sends her children to public school is proof of their claims of dedication to the family. They send all of their children to school despite the large expenses and the need for labor at the business. Esperanza Juliana started receiving small loans when she was a mobile sweets and chips vendor, and today, she requests and consistently repays 400 USD and higher to purchase wholesale items for her well-established store, while sending her two girls to school. Natalia T. passes house to house selling from two large (head carried) baskets tamales, rice, beans, and atol de platano, some of which she grows on her own fields with the help of her husband. She brings her children along to help if they are not in school.
Increased profits from growing more vegetables, buying wholesale to supply larger family stores or investing in buying and raising more livestock at once are the economic benefits which keep these mothers consistently pay off and return for more loans. This dedication holds as an ultimate goal to lift their children to a higher starting platform by paying for their schooling successfully and providing them with adequate health care. It seems that their children, their ultimate pride, are a reflection of their own life, and through these loans they choose to better their children’s lives, making up for the hardships that they have had to live through.
In this group: Silvia Feliciana, Catarina, Maria Cristina, Jesus, Conceptcion, Maria, Esperanza Juliana, Dominga, Izabela, Paula, Angelina, Natalia, Catarina, Maria, Maria, Paulina Gregoria